Donuts and Coffeeeee-mail. Free Wifi @ Dunkin’ Donuts

Seems like Dunkin’ Donuts is on a roll — literally. They’re rolling out new stores all over the place it seems and refurbishing existing stores. It took awhile for them to wake up and smell the . . . compeition across the street as Starbucks basically took over the world.

There’s a brand new Dunkin’ Donuts store that just opened up in my town (2nd one in 1 year) but the new, noticable sign on the door is . . .

for Free WiFi!

I’ve never envisioned myself “hanging out” at a Dunkin’ before, but perhaps it just might work. The larger seating area and flat-screen TV helps to make me want to go and pull out my laptop to catch-up on e-mail when I have awkward gaps in my schedule — too short to go back to my desk, yet too long to just waste the time away.

This new WiFi with your donuts strategy is apparently coming from the top-down as more and more stores will become hotspots as a strategic decision from Dunkin’ headquarters.

“”Since we’ve gone into the espresso-based drink business … more and more of our consumers come in in the afternoon to take that 10 minutes out of their day.”

“We are paying attention to environments because we don’t want to alienate those consumers who do want to come in to relax,” says John Luther, CEO of DD

Hey, I’m all for any chain to pick-up the free wifi hotspot strategy. It’s useful and practical for people on the go — and who can resist a munchin now and then?

What other chains do you know about that offers free wi-fi? And have you ever used the hotspot to surf or check email?